Bluegrass Music

Orange County is famous for a lot of things--oranges, John Wayne, Disneyland--but it's definitely not known as one of the bluegrass music capitals of the world. That didn't stop promoters of the new "Bluegrass & Traditional Music Expo '86" from choosing the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa as the site for the three-day event that opens today.

Jazz luminary Charlie Haden took no small amount of joy Tuesday night in bringing the old-time country music he began playing seven decades ago into the tony surroundings of Walt Disney Concert Hall. "Man, oh, man," the 72-year-old bassist said upon taking the stage. "Who would have thought we'd have a country audience at Disney Hall?" In less than three weeks, the hall has hosted Steve Martin's venture into bluegrass music, Kris Kristofferson's solo show and now Haden and a group of stellar Nashville singers and instrumentalists playing what once was referred to as "hillbilly music."

Bill Monroe, who combined fast-picking mandolin, banjo and guitar with a "high lonesome" singing style to create the distinctly American musical style known as bluegrass, died Monday. He was 84. The "Father of Bluegrass" died at a hospice in Springfield, Tenn., after suffering a stroke earlier this year, according to the Grand Ole Opry, where Monroe had performed since 1939.

Banjo legend Earl Scruggs may be stooped with age, but his fingers still pick the same quicksilver notes that jump-started American music more than 60 years ago. His playing turned the banjo into a virtuoso instrument and helped define the "high lonesome" sound of bluegrass music. He's traded licks with Indian sitar players, New York city jazzmen and Los Angeles pop stars, and he has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. At 82, Scruggs has nothing left to prove.

At first glance, it looks like just another San Fernando Valley storefront--impersonal, easy to overlook. But the Blue Ridge Pickin Parlor in Canoga Park is Mecca for local bluegrass fans, people whose favorite performers are Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Jim and Jesse, and Byron Berline. A biker, dressed in black, approaches, toting a tiny mandolin case.

It takes commitment in the music world for a band to make it to the top, a willingness to go full-tilt and do whatever is necessary to achieve fame. Then there is the new bluegrass group Ash Grove, which might be lacking in that particular brand of commitment. "Well, let's just say we're not gonna buy a bus and get uniforms," said fiddler Byron Berline with a laugh, when asked how much a go of it he and his fellow members were planning to make.

Jimmy Martin, a pioneering singer and guitarist dubbed "the king of bluegrass" whose feisty temperament was part of his lore, has died. He was 77. Martin died Saturday in a Nashville hospice of bladder cancer, according to his son, Lee Martin. "He loved bluegrass music, country music. Bill Monroe was his idol and someone he patterned himself after musically," Lee Martin told Associated Press on Saturday.

The Del McCoury Band won entertainer of the year and Rhonda Vincent was named top female vocalist for the fourth time Thursday at the International Bluegrass Music Awards in Louisville, Ky. Dan Tyminski, who sings and plays acoustic guitar for Alison Krauss & Union Station, won the award for male vocalist for the third time. Krauss & Union Station took home album of the year for "Alison Krauss & Union Station Live."

As its annual convention and awards show approaches, the bluegrass music industry continues to enjoy newfound popularity created by the Grammy-winning "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack. However, the recording contains few true bluegrass tunes. "To me, the 'O Brother' soundtrack is not bluegrass," said singer Rhonda Vincent, the International Bluegrass Music Assn.'s reigning best entertainer. "But as long as people love the music, who cares what it's called?"

The family group Cherryholmes won the top award -- entertainer of the year -- at the International Bluegrass Music Awards. Jere and Sandy Cherryholmes were inspired to start a family band after attending a bluegrass festival to lift their spirits after their oldest daughter died in 1999. A self-titled debut last month landed at No. 3 on the Billboard bluegrass chart. The group includes the parents, daughters Cia, 21, and Molly, 13, and sons B.J., 17, and Skip, 15.

Louise Scruggs, 78, who as the wife and manager of banjo legend Earl Scruggs helped broaden the audience for bluegrass and country music, died Thursday in Nashville. Her family said she had respiratory disease. Scruggs, who was born in rural Wilson County east of Nashville, met her husband in 1946 after seeing him perform at the Grand Ole Opry with Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys. They married two years later.

The family group Cherryholmes won the top award -- entertainer of the year -- at the International Bluegrass Music Awards. Jere and Sandy Cherryholmes were inspired to start a family band after attending a bluegrass festival to lift their spirits after their oldest daughter died in 1999. A self-titled debut last month landed at No. 3 on the Billboard bluegrass chart. The group includes the parents, daughters Cia, 21, and Molly, 13, and sons B.J., 17, and Skip, 15.

Vassar Clements, a legendary fiddler who launched his career with Nashville's Grand Ole Opry in 1949 and later toured or recorded with a raft of musical stars, including the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers and Paul McCartney, died Tuesday. He was 77. Clements died in his home near Nashville after suffering from cancer, said his daughter, Midge Cranor. He last performed earlier this year in Jamestown, N.Y. Born in 1928 in Kinard, Fla., and raised in Kissimmee, Fla.

Jimmy Martin, a pioneering singer and guitarist dubbed "the king of bluegrass" whose feisty temperament was part of his lore, has died. He was 77. Martin died Saturday in a Nashville hospice of bladder cancer, according to his son, Lee Martin. "He loved bluegrass music, country music. Bill Monroe was his idol and someone he patterned himself after musically," Lee Martin told Associated Press on Saturday.

The Del McCoury Band won entertainer of the year and Rhonda Vincent was named top female vocalist for the fourth time Thursday at the International Bluegrass Music Awards in Louisville, Ky. Dan Tyminski, who sings and plays acoustic guitar for Alison Krauss & Union Station, won the award for male vocalist for the third time. Krauss & Union Station took home album of the year for "Alison Krauss & Union Station Live."

As its annual convention and awards show approaches, the bluegrass music industry continues to enjoy newfound popularity created by the Grammy-winning "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack. However, the recording contains few true bluegrass tunes. "To me, the 'O Brother' soundtrack is not bluegrass," said singer Rhonda Vincent, the International Bluegrass Music Assn.'s reigning best entertainer. "But as long as people love the music, who cares what it's called?"

The typical ethnomusicologist is an academic who travels to out-of-the-way places in distant lands, recorder in hand, capturing for posterity the exotic sounds discovered there. Eric Davidson fits that bill perfectly--except that he's a biologist and made his field recordings here in the United States. Davidson teaches at Caltech in Pasadena and is a founding member of the Iron Mountain String Band, which plays Saturday at Ball Junior High cafeteria in Anaheim.

Once the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack album hit big on the charts, was there any doubt an "O Sister" would follow? There is nothing record execs like better than sequels, so you figured rival labels would begin planning an "O Cousin" or "O Granddaddy" sound-alike as soon as the Mercury Records soundtrack to the Coen brothers' film arrived last December. The album, which features classy interpretations of country, blues, gospel and other Depression-era sounds, has sold more than 2.